Anime Producer Explains Why Second Seasons Don’t Happen

Anime fans, both old and new, are always worrying if their favorite series will ever get a second season. No Game No Life, Spice and Wolf, and A Certain Magical Index are always the first series mentioned by fans that NEED another season.

However, anime producer Marina Sasaki (Barakamon, Parasyte -the maxim-, World Is Still Beautiful) once went on a Twitter rant explaining why your favorite anime will probably never receive another season…and it is totally not your fault! This rant may be from 2015, but it is still relevant to this day.

That is the pain experienced by companies that shell out 200 million yen to make an anime that does not sell well while the manga, that did not pay a single yen, does. It makes us think, “did we sign up for this?”

If a manga is selling by the truckloads, then it has it made! Naturally, people will start expecting a second season. Even if the manga sells, but not a even 1 yen goes back to the anime company → the Blu-ray discs do not sell → there is no way a second season will be made.

What if you sell a lot of licensed merchandise from the show? Royalties from anime merchandise is just a small percentage of the total revenue. If you sell 10 million yen worth of merchandise, only a few hundred thousand yen will go to the anime company. If you do not sell a lot of merchandise, then it would not be a large sum. In the end, it is tough if the Blu-ray discs do not sell.

A second season being brought up by a production committee only happens in the best cases. Most committees do not even talk about a second season. They look at the 3rd or 4th Blu-ray volume and calculate if they can minimize their losses. Even streaming, which was supposed to be a ray of hope, is not strong enough to be a money maker…

Some heavy stuff. It really doesn’t matter how popular an anime is, how much critics love it, or how deep the story is. If those Blu-rays don’t sell, your fav show will never get anything more than a single season.